2026: What Was, and Is, and Is to Come
So... I think its safe to say that since 2024 went out like a lion, we were relieved to see that 2025 came in like a lamb, albeit a sad lamb.
And it was good to have a couple of quiet months before heading to Hampton, VA for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, and then on to the AQS show in Paducah, KY. Both were very good shows for us and both are hosted in towns we enjoy going back to over and over again!
And in between these two shows, we published our 1st new pattern of 2025, the Carolinian. It was time for us to design another all-purpose, full-sized, everyday bag and the Carolinian has done well for us (and I attribute a lot of its success to the AMAZING fabric we used on the cover sample!)
In June we were fortunate enough to be able to go on another fun & relaxing vacation with 2 besties! In between excursions this year, we added a new card game to our repetoire... Hearts! Interesting how a "cut-throat" game brought out a different side of each of us! 🙂 But in a fun way, not a bad way!
And we had to push pretty hard to get our 2nd new pattern of 2025, the Cignet Phone Pal published in time to give it a premiere at the Houston shows, the international Quilt Market & Festival. We know what a big advantage it is to be introduce a new pattern in Houston, but with these shows scheduled so much earlier this year, we were lucky to get this done in time!
And since both the Quilt Market & Festival were scheduled FIVE weeks early this year, before we knew it, it was time to start packing it up for the shows! But as I've mentioned before, my husband has a progressive neurological disorder, and increasingly, this means that the load in, set up, take down & load out responsibilities rely almost totally on me for these shows, so this year, I changed some pretty big things about our setup to make it a whole lot easier on me!
- 1st off- I left the black curtains at home and just went with the white (kinda dingey) curtains that come automatically with the booth.
- 2nd- NO lights.
- 3rd- I decided to go without the video cameras for this show
To be honest, I wanted to stay off the step ladders as much as possible and I am SO glad I did, because for the majority of the time we were in Houston, I developed a pretty serious back issue (sciatica I fear). All in all, it was a pretty miserable & painful 2 weeks in Houston & after seeing a doctor, 5 weeks in PT & an MRI diagnosis of stenosis w/bone spurs at the L3,4+5 level, I'm on course for surgery on January 7th.
So how did the shows go?
Honestly... Quilt Market was totally dismal! Why? Was it the tariffs? Partially for sure. But also, It seems that retail stores just shop for their products differently than 20 years ago. The foot traffic just wasnt there. It was SO bad in fact, that the Quilt Market for 2026 was almost immediately canceled for all time. Can you believe it? No more Quilt Market!
Quilt Festival was decent, it's always good, but it was significantly off from the past few years. It felt kinda sad as we were flying out of Houston on Monday morning, to think that after 18 years, this might be the last time we make this trip.
So is this the end of ALL Quilt Shows for us? I honestly don't know. For now, we'll just take it one show at a time... I hope to go the MAQF in Hampton, VA, in late February, but a lot depends on how I bounce back from my surgery. The same goes for Paducah, but I feel pretty certain that Houston is in our rear-view mirror going forward.
So what can we do, that might compensate for
this loss of exposure going into 2026?
You might find this hard to believe, especially since I've fought so hard AGAINST this idea for years... But I've decided to start selling our patterns by Instant Download (in addition of course to hardcopy). As a matter of fact, we're already offering 4 of our patterns as an Instant Download as well as a Hardcopy!
- the Carolinian
- the Cignet Phone pal
- The Everyday Attache
- the Quattro
As to why we're doing this after being so staunchly opposed to the idea for so long, I'll tell you more about that in an upcoming post soon, so stay tuned for that?
And now.... it's YOUR turn!
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